TERRIBLE CRIME.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 14

TERRIBLE CRIME.

A FATHER’S REVENGE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 23. The terrible crime George Green, who, as an act of revenge on his wife, murdered his pretty little daughter, aged nine years, has shocked Sydney as few crimes do. The photographs of the child that have been published are particularly striking, and have aroused general sympathy for the mother, who is left with two sons. The murder will go down as one of the most dreadful crimes in the State’s history. Green is a butcher by trade, and lived at Edgeware road, Newtown. A month ago he separated from his wife—Florence Green—who went to live with her three children. Mr and Mrs Green had not lived happily, and Mrs Green had, in fact, instituted divorce proceedings against her husband. It was the husband s custom to visit the children very Saturday night, and last Saturday night he called as usual. He made an attempt to patch up the quarrel between himself and his wife; but she was adamant, and refused his request to stay in the house for the night. Soon after he had gone Mrs Green missed her daughter, Elaine, who was a favourite with her father, and particularly attached to him.

_ Surmising that her husband had taken her away, Mrs Green went to the police and reported that her daughter was missing. Returning to her home she met her husband, who asked her where she had been. She replied that she had been to the police, and that she had reported the disappearance of Elaine, and then she asked: “Where is Elaine?” “ Oh, she is all right,” was the reply. “ I have put her to sleep. As a matter of of fact, I have murdered her.” Mrs Green did not believe this story, and allowed Green to walk home with her. Outside gate she asked him again where the. girl had been taken, and he repeated the assertion that he had murdred her. “ I have given you something to remember all your life,” he said. At the same time he pulled a razor from his pocket and rushed at Mrs Green. Mrs Green is a big woman, and her busband is small, and as he made towards her she grasped his shoulder, turned him about, and then pushed him away It was then she realised that Green had been telling the truth, for she saw bloodstains on his shirt. She ran to the door of her home.

Green walked to the front fence and threw the razor at the woman’s feet. Then he drew a bottle from his pocket and drank the contents. The bottle, too, he threw at Mrs Green’s feet. “ I had better go,” he said. “In any case I will be dead in a few minutes.” Mrs Green visited the police again and told them what her husband had said regarding Elaine. An hour later the girl’s body was found in a vacant section, in grass 3ft high. Her neck had been severed, the head being practically cut from the body.

News of the discovery of th<> body started an immediate search for the murderer. A strong force, of police was employed, and it was the report of a milkman making his early morning round that led to his discovery. Green had been seen climbing a fence which surrounded the grounds of Newington College. Police raced to the scene, and in a far corner of the ground they sa w Green. At the sight of the police he stood up, and raising another bortle of poison to-his lips, he drank the contents. , In an attempt to stop him from taking the poison a constable threw his baton at Green, and it missed by inches. Green struggled; when the police reached him, but he was weak from loss of blood—an artery in his left wrist had been severed apparently early iu the night—and was soon under control.

“Wo have been looking for, you all night,” said the policeman, “ in connection with the murder of your daughter, Elaine.” °

“ Yes,” he gasped. “ I killed my daughter. I did not want her to lead the life I had to live.” Green repeated the statement on his way to hospital, where be died a few minutes after admission. When his belongings were searched numerous pawn tickets were found, but there was ;io note or letter to indicate why he had murdered his daughter. Green has been described as a most inoffensive man, clean in his habits, and most desirous of obtaining regular employment. It seems quite clear that the murder was an act of revenge against Mrs Green for commencing divorce proceedings.